[Open Broadcast]

[protect_and_serve]

Who: Everyone on the telepathic network (which is everyone)
When: Just after the new arrivals show up.
What: Joscelin attempting to get things organized.

[There’s a lot of chatter going on, literally making it hard to hear yourself think, between veterans gossipping and speculating what the new wave of Travelers means, and accidental broadcasts by panicked new arrivals, until one hard-edged thought cuts through it all.]

Enough.

You all need to stop this before we drive ourselves insane.

Anyone with experience on the Network, I want a few organized broadcasts offering help and information to newcomers. We don’t call them Fools.

If you’re new, stay calm. No-one can overhear you unless you’re projecting. Try to divide yourselves as evenly as you can between the people giving you answers. That much is instinctive, you won’t have trouble as long as you can imagine it.

Anyone who’s been here longer and wants to speculate? Don’t do it publicly. Find your own little corners, or keep it off the network.

New telepaths. You’ll need to find someone more experienced more than anyone else does.

And everyone be ready for a new Jaunt.

Comments

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

[in reply to this]

A face I recognize from home. But nobody from earlier on the journey. If we're lucky, next month we spend a long time fishing in dungeons. If not...

[He gives a wordless mental shrug.]

[locked to interested Veterans]

[unabatedly]

...Then they're gone, just like that?

[There's something like a mental sigh.]

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

Maybe the ones that never come back get sent home, chere. For all we know. Maybe the Trumps just looking out for us all.

All the same, I won't be telling them I give up any time soon.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[unabatedly]

Or they could be somewhere else, in some other in-between limbo. We simply don't know.

But I'm with you. I'm not giving the Trumps any more reason to oust me into the unknown. Not until we know all of the variables.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

Counting cards only works if you know what deck you're playing with. We never get all the variables. Not without taking a few risks.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[unabatedly]

I don't know how many risks we can afford to take after what happened last Jaunt.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

You think we know when we're taking a risk or not?

[locked to interested Veterans]

[unabatedly]

Not always. None of us do. Some risks are obvious.

[Whether to kill someone or not, where to strike, the cost of failure.]

The last time some of us took a gamble, they disappeared. And, at the time, they thought giving up might have actually been a good option.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

And sometimes risk is the only game in town. Remember Moebius?

[Given that no-one does so clearly, probably, it's likely a rhetorical question.]

[locked to interested Veterans]

[sparkstriker]

If not, we adapt.

But trust me, fishing can get boring in the long run.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

I think we all know there are worse things than boring.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[sparkstriker]

Obviously. But these newcomers don't.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

Chances are, they find out pretty soon.

Tomorrow, we go to only one glass of water.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[sparkstriker]

Really. Just one.

Re: [locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

The number of people just tripled. The amount of water I can make didn't.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[sparkstriker]

Point taken. Think you can keep up 'til the next Jaunt?

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

That depends on how long it takes.

After tomorrow, will any of us have the energy to do anything? How long before we're ready to eat our new Fools?

[locked to interested Veterans]

[hakodate]

I see a few from home, too.

Don't know whether to think we're being pitied or taunted, with that.

[With the mix of people here that he knows, it might even be both.]

Re: [locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

That depends on how much longer they keep us here, frere.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[hakodate]

We could get out of here in the next five minutes and I'd still be asking that question.

But it's not the only one I'm worried about. Looks like we've about tripled, doesn't it?

[Why yes, that is a vague inquiry about the state of the water supply.]

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

And still just one Remy. You think you can last on one glass tomorrow?

[locked to interested Veterans]

[hakodate]

We got through Moebius, I'm not about to keel over because of a goddamned glass of water.

[Will he have to eat his own bravado later? Possibly. Is being fatalistic going to help them at all? Not really.]

How long did it take you to get the hang of that in the first place, anyway? Not that I'm expecting anyone else to learn this shit overnight, but - well. If this happens again next time and you fall into a dungeon portal along the way, we might be pretty fucked.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

I practiced for three jaunts. After Moebius, I always wanted to be able to get to an exit.

[locked to interested Veterans]

[hakodate]

Can't blame you there.

[And that's all that really needs to be said about Moebius.]

You had to start with portals, then?

[locked to interested Veterans]

[notinthecards]

It's the way I started. Couldn't say if I had to, or if that's just what happened.